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A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
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FROM VOLUME 7, NUMBER 2, FEBRUARY 1994

NEWS...

• RESEARCH NEWS

Item #d94feb150

Sea level rise: Human activities such as groundwater withdrawal and surface water diversion account for at least a third of the observed rise of sea level in this century. (See "Direct Anthropogenic Contributions to Sea Level Rise in the Twentieth Century," D.L. Sahagian, F.W. Schwartz, D.K. Jacobs, Nature, 367(6458), 54-57, Jan. 6, 1994. Also see articles in Science News, p. 21, Jan. 8, and New Scientist, p. 17, Jan. 22.)

Item #d94feb151

Global warming at high latitudes from greenhouse gases might not be as pronounced as has been widely expected, according to recent work that combines satellite observations of cloud properties with a global model. (See Tselioudis paper in Prof. Pubs./Clouds, Aerosols & Climate, and article in New Scientist, p. 16, Jan. 22.)

Item #d94feb152

Tropical climate sensitivity: New results based on isotope analyses of coral reefs indicate that tropical temperatures dropped significantly during the last ice age. (See "Tropical Temperature Variations Since 20,000 Years Ago: Modulating Interhemispheric Climate Change," T.P. Guilderson (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observ., Palisades NY 10964), R.G. Fairbanks, J.L. Rubenstone, Science, 263(5147), 663-665, Feb. 4, 1994). The sensitivity of tropical temperatures to climate change has important implications for the validation of climate models and prospects for future warming, but previous determinations based on other methods have given conflicting results. (See Science News, pp. 124-125, Feb. 19.)

Item #d94feb153

Past climatic fluctuations: A mechanism that possibly explains why the last interglacial cycle (the Eemian), unlike the present interglacial, shows evidence of rapid climatic fluctuations is discussed in the Feb. 3 issue of Nature. (See two related items from Nature, 367(6462), Feb. 3, 1994: "An Unstable Superconveyor," W.S. Broecker, 414-415; and "Rapid Interglacial Climate Fluctuations Driven by North Atlantic Ocean Circulation," A.J. Weaver and T.M.C. Hughes, 447-450. See also Science News, pp. 86-87, Feb. 5.) The latter article, and one in the science section of the The New York Times (pp. C1, C8, Feb. 1), also discuss other research that challenges the ice core evidence of wide temperature swings during the last glacial period. (See: "Glacial-Interglacial Changes in Moisture Sources for Greenland: Influences on the Ice Core Record of Climate," C.D. Charles, D. Rind et al., Science, 263(5146), 508-511, Jan. 28, 1994.) Such past climatic fluctuations are a concern because of the possibility that greenhouse gases could push present climate into a different mode.

Item #d94feb154

Solar-climate relationships: The research by Baliunas and Jastrow proposing a mechanism for the recently observed correlation between the solar cycle and global temperature, mentioned in GCCD, January 1994, has been published and is listed in this month's Professional Publications section on the EPRI/Scripps symposium.